The Host

I've been pretty lazy for the last three weeks. I've been watching too much tv, reading a bit, lying around, and napping a lot. I started to get a cold (or the flu) a couple of days ago, and, today, I decided that I needed to get up and out and do something instead of just lying around feeling sorry for myself. So, in the morning, I took a subway and bus out to an area south of where I'm living now thinking that I could find some peace and quiet and a bit of fresh air. If I stay in Korea much longer, I need to get out the the city where I'm living now. Unfortunately, I never found anything I liked. I don't know how far out of the city you have to go to get a nice setting.

On the way back home, I stopped at Yongsan electronics market and went to my regular DVD shop and bought The Host and The Wind that Shakes the Barley. The Host has been a really big hit here in Korea. It played at Cannes (didn't win anything) and they are thinking of distributing it abroad. I watched it and I liked it; however, I can't understand why they think it will do well outside of Korea. It got surprising good reviews at Rotten Tomatoes (88%), but it's not an art film, which is what I expect to show at movie festivals. Yes, I know that all of the movie festivals that used to show quirky, independent movies have gone pretty main stream. But, The Host is no Brokeback Mountain. Movies like Chihwasan, which has an interesting historical component and incredible cinematography, or Oasis, which is a love story of a mentally handicapped man and a woman with cerebral palsy, have a much better shot of selling in the foreign market.

The movie takes shots at the U.S. military (and the U.S. - but, hey, haven't we all?), the Korean police, medical people (both Korean and American), and the Korean military, but it doesn't say anything new.

The actors are quite good. I've always liked Song Kang-ho. His daughter in the movie(Ko Ah-sung) as well as the actor playing his father (Byun Hee-bong) were excellent. However, a lot of the stereotypical characters in the movie ring true IF YOU ARE FAMILIAR WITH KOREA, but I don't think anyone outside of Korea will get it.

There are some interesting characters, but there are no characters who develop in an interesting and believable way. Song's character seems a little different at the end, but that would be hard to believe since he is supposed to be mentally handicapped. The slap at the U.S. for using Agent Yellow to try to control a virus and the Korean government for rolling over was just too farcical to be taken seriously.

This is another movie like Typhoon, which Korea hopes will find an audience in the west, but I don't see it. The movie is worth watching because it's entertaining, but it's not worthy of a Palme D'or.
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After the movie, I went to the gym but my joints were aching so I had a pretty crappy workout. Then I went to the sauna and had a nice long soak in a hot tub. Now I'm going to lie down in front of the tv with a can of Pringles and watch another movie.